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Section 4. Political problems of the international relations, global and regional development
Section 4. Political problems of the international relations, global and regional development
Wang Wan, Beijing Normal University PhD candidate in International Relations, the School of Government Visiting student at Saint Petersburg State University in Russia
E-mail: wwhmj1988@gmail.com Cheng Zhijie, Beijing Normal University PhD candidate in International Relations, the School of Government
E-mail: chengzhijie1981@163.com
Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River under the background of Silk Road Economic Belt
This essay is phased achievement of project funded by China Scholarship Council, State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering Tsinghua University (sklhse-2014-A-03), National Social Science Fund project (14BGJ039), project funded by Beijing Philosophy and Social Science Planning Office (13KDB039) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
Abstract: The Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation is on the fast track. However, there still exist several problems as obstacles to Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River. Nowadays, China is pushing forward the construction of Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative and it has received active response from Russia. Silk Road Economic Belt will promote Sino-Russian cooperation in economic development and infrastructure construction in eastern neighboring regions. This will be conducive to Sino-Russian cooperation in transboundary water regarding Heilongjiang River by providing financial support, increasing impetus on cooperation and removing misunderstanding between these two countries.
Keywords: Sino-Russian; transboundary water cooperation; Heilongjiang River; Silk Road Economic Belt
1 Introduction
In recent years, the transboundary water issue has become an important factor that affects China’s relations with its neighboring countries. Russia is the largest neighbour of China, and almost 80% of its boundary with China is consisted of rivers and lake. The development of Sino-Russian border trade and the promotion of bilateral relations have made the transboundary water an important factor that increasingly affects Sino-Russian relations and should not be ignored. The transboundary water resources between China and Russia consist of the Heilongjiang River (In Russia, the river is
called Amur River), Argun River, Ussuri River, and Xingkaihu Lake, of which Heilongjiang River is the primary water subject and is also the main area of the transboundary water cooperation between China and Russia (former Soviet Union). Therefore, in this article, the primary focus is the Heilongjiang River.
The total length of Heilongjiang River is4440km; the Sino-Russian border is 2854 km in length with a control drainage area of 1.452 million km2 [1, 52]. There are two origins of the Heilongjiang River. The southern origin, which contains the Argun River, originated from the confluence of the Hailar
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Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River under the background of Silk Road Economic Belt
River of Inner Mongolia and the Herlen River of Mongolia, and the north origin is the Shilka River, which is located in Russian territory. The confluence of Shilka and Argun near the Luoguhe Village in Russia, which is west of Mohe, is named the Heilongjiang River, whereas its east-bound part is called the Amur River. Along the river, it receives the Zeya River, Bureya River, and the Amgun River from the left bank (on the Russian side) and the Huma River, Hudson River, Songhua River, Ussuri River, and other tributaries from the right bank (on the Chinese side); the river finally enters the Tatar Strait at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur [2]. The watershed of the Sino-Russian that borders the Heilongjiang River includes cities in northeastern China, such as Mohe County, Heihe City, Tongjiang City, Xunke County, Jiayin County, Fuyuan City, Raohe County, and Suifenhe City. And the Heilongjiang-Amur river basin covers six Russian provinces: Primorsky, Khabarovsky, Amur, Chitinskaya, Aginsky-Buryatsky and Evreiskaya [3, 5].
The Sino-Russian cooperation regarding the border of the Heilongjiang River began in the 1950s. Sergei Vinogradov and Patricia Wouters divided the Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation into three stages from the perspective of the impact of the political relations between China and Russia regarding the bilateral cooperation for the transboundary water resources. The three stages are as follows: forging the cooperation in 1950s, Forced to suspend in 1960s and 1970s, Re-initiation and development of the cooperation from 1980s until now [4, 14]. After entering the 21st century, the Sino-Russian water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River has made substantial progress. Three factors has accelerated this progress, which are rising Sino-Russian relations, China and Russia adjusted their respective domestic development strategy, and serious transboundary water pollution.
However, there still exist several problems as obstacles to Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River (Amur River). For example, the relative backward development of eastern neighboring regions, different attitudes of China and Russia towards transboundary water resources cooperation, and misunderstandings between China and Russia.
Nowadays, China is pushing forward the construction of Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative, which was put forward by President Xi Jinping in September 2013. Under this circumstance, will the Silk Road Economic Belt bring opportunities and advantages to the further development of Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River?
2 Obstacles to Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation
In author’s another paper "Current status and existing problems ofSino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River in the 21st century" are detailedly analysized on the problems.
2.1 The relative backward development of eastern neighboring regions
The neighboring eastern areas of China and Russia are relatively backward regions in terms of economic development. Both China and Russia has realized it and respectively paid more attention to the northeastern Chian and the Russian Far East. Although promoted by the joint efforts of “revitalizing the northeast old industrial bases” in China and the development strategy of the Russian Far East, the Sino-Russian cooperation has not yet formed the growth zone of the regional economic development [5, 107]. Besides, in these areas, the survey equipments and infrastructures for exploitation of transboundary water are outdated and insufficient [6, 196].
Without adequate funds, equipment and infrastructures, both of China and Russia could not be able to implement development plans of transboundary water. Moreover, they would make inaccurate development plans, which could arouse misunderstanding on both sides [7, 32]. Therefore, the slow-down in the development of the neighboring eastern regions of China and Russia will slowly reduce the impetus on transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River.
2.2 Different attitudes of China and Russia towards transboundary water resources cooperation
This incline to reduce impetus is more obvious in Russia for its different attitude on transboundary water cooperation from China. China is domestically in growing need of water resources, which results in more emphasis on exploitation and
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Section 4. Political problems of the international relations, global and regional development
utilization of transboundary water resources in order to meet various social economic demands, such as industrial water, agricultural irrigation, household water use, urban construction, etc. To the contrary, for Russia, quality rather than quantity of water is the most crucial transboundary issue regarding Heilongjiang River. In the foreseeable future, except the Upper Amur and Khanka areas in the Primorye region, the quantity of water would not be a problem to Russian territories in the Amur River basin [8, 86].
2.3 Misunderstanding between China and Russia towards transboundary water resources cooperation
Furthermore, different attitudes on transboundary water resources could lead to misunderstanding between China and Russia [9, 32]. Russia has raised doubts on China’s behavior and motivation of actively seeking Sino-Russian transboundary water resources cooperation. Some Russian scholars hold the view that China has showed great enthusiasm for exploitation cooperation in transboundary water resources with Russia, which would aggravate the environmental pollution.
3 Silk Road Economic Belt
President Xi Jinping respectively put forward the initiative, “Silk Road Economic Belt”, when he visited Kazakhstan in September 2013. One year later, in October 2014, China, India and other 19countries signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding on establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). According to this memorandum, the AIIB has been established in order to provide financial support for construction of infrastructure in Asia. In November, the first Chief Negotiators Meeting (CNM) of AIIB was held in China. China announced to invest 40 billion dollars in establishing the Silk Road Fund, which aims to provide financial support for project related to interconnectivity, such as infrastructure construction, resources development, industrial cooperation, financial cooperation, in countries along the Belt and Road. In March 2015, China issued Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road. In April, 57 countries had been approved as perspective founding members of the AIIB. In June, the signing ceremony of the Articles ofAgreement of the AIIB was held in
Beijing. Representitives from these 57 countries attended this ceremony. It shows that the Silk Road Economic Belt has entered into implementation stage from initiative stage after a year of brewing.
Based on consideration of both the domestic and international situations, China proposed its Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative, which is China’s great decision and has profound strategic significance. The Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative continues China’s development strategy, which focuses on economic construction, and attaches importance to interconnectivity. It serves as a major measure for China to strengthen its peripheral diplomacy, including relationship with Russia.
4 Silk Road Economic Belt will promote Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River
4.1 The integration of Silk Road Economic Belt and Eurasian Union
China has actively sought Russia’s response to the Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative, for Russia is a crucial country which is covered by the belt. At the same time, two members (Belarus and Kazakhstan) of Eurasian Union, which is lead by Russia, are also covered by the belt. Silk Road Economic Belt is mainly aimed at economic development, which provides great potentials for cooperation with Eurasian Union [10]. Therefore, the Silk Road Economic Belt has received active response from Russia [11, 75].
On May 8th, 2015, China and Russia issued Joint Statement on Cooperation of Connection Between the Silk Road Economic Belt and Eurasian Economic Union, which integrates development strategy ofChina with that of Russia. This Joint Statement also provides policy support to Sino-Russian transboundary cooperation and projects, which covers investment, trade, cooperation zone, infrastructure, company and finance, etc. It marks that Sino-Russian partnership has reached new hights [12].
4.2 It will promote Sino-Russian economic cooperation in eastern neighboring regions
Silk Road Economic Belt is mainly aimed at economic development and constructed based on economic corridors. One of these economic corridors is China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor. It include two routes: one route is through Inner Mongolia and Mongolia from Beijing
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Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River under the background of Silk Road Economic Belt
and Tianjin to Russia, the other route is through Shenyang, Changchun, Haerbin and Manchuria from Dalian to Russia. China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor will promote Sino-Russian economic cooperation, which could further create economic growth in eastern neighboring areas.
4.3 It will improve transportation infrastructure construction
As shown in both the plans of Silk Road Economic Belt Initiative and the joint statement on connection Between the Silk Road Economic Belt and Eurasian Economic Union, China emphasizes on infrastructure construction and it becomes one crucial field in which China and Russia strengthen cooperation. Undoubtedly, transportation infrastructure is essential to economic and trade development, especially transboundary cooperation. For Heilongjiang River consists the major part of the border between China and Russia, it is inevitably to involve the construction and development of border ports.
On May 8th, 2015, President Xi Jinping and President Putin held talks in Moscow. Two heads of state signed and issued the Joint Statement between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation on Deepening Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination and Advocating Win-win Cooperation [13]. This Joint Statement advocates to strengthen cooperation in development of Sino-Russian joint land-sea transport, which refers to Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge and Heihe-Blagoveshchensk highway bridge.
The project of constructing a railway bridge across Heilongjiang River connecting Tongjiang in Heilongjiang with Nizhneleninskoye in JAO was first proposed in 2007 and was confirmed in signed international agreement in the next year. In February 2014, this project has officially entered the construction period. Now 65 percent of the main parts of the bridge in China has already been completed, but the construction in Russian side has been delayed [14]. In August 2015, Russian Deputy Prime Minister said that the construction in Russian side would start at the end of this year. According to Sino-Russian agreement signed in 1990s, bridges across Heilongjiang River between Heihe and Blagoveschensk were planned to be built, including a highway bridge (first stage) and
a railway bridge (second stage). China and Russia have prepared a lot for the construction of highway bridge, including negotiation, design, etc. A Sino-Russian joint company has recently been formed to implementation the construction of this bridge, which will begin in 2016. The bridge would facilitate economic ties between the Amur region and Heilongjiang Province and would help to revive the economy in these regions [15]. These bridges will ramp up trade, transportation and tourism between China and Russia. It will further cement relations across the border, strengthening the underpinnings of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership [16, 3].
4.4 It will spur demand for water exploitation and protection
The development of the neighboring eastern regions of China and Russia will provide financial support for the cooperation in transboundary water regarding Heilongjiang River. Furthermore, it will increase the impetus on this cooperation.
On one hand, economic development and cooperation will spur demand for transboundary water exploitation as well as water protection, especially in Russia. As mentioned above, China and Russia are determined to jointly further promote the economic development in eastern neighboring areas. However, the demand for water resources is indispensable to rapid regional development. Besides, exploitation oftransboundary water, construction of infrastructure, operation of production equipment and residential water uses would create negative effects on transboundary water. Therefore, protection of transboundary from pollution should not be ignored.
On the other hand, economic development and cooperation would be conducive to remove Russia’s misunderstanding towards China’s behavior of actively seeking Sino-Russian transboundary water resources cooperation. China tends to combine the Sino-Russian transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River with regional development in neighboring eastern regions of China and Russia. By the construction of Silk Road Economic Belt and its integration with Eurasian Union, both China and Russia could gain economic development as well as impetus on transboundary water cooperation regarding Heilongjiang River.
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Section 4. Political problems of the international relations, global and regional development
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Mironova Margarita Anatolievna, PhD, Associate professor of the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv E-mail: mironova_margarita@yahoo.com
The eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy: strategic challenges for the EU foreign policy
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